-ABOUT HO LAN-


Singer /guitarist /composer Ho Lan grew up in Puli, Taiwan. The eighth of ten children, she received no formal musical training aside from a few months of guitar lessons at the age of 16. In her youth, Ho Lan and her best friend Ying Hong used to crouch outside the window of one of the few homes in Puli that had a radio. There they would listen for hours, to music from around the world. The young Ho Lan spent hours in the mountains, singing against the sound of waterfalls to increase her vocal strength and mimicking song birds to increase vocal range and agility. At age 18, Ho Lan became the music teacher in a local elementary school.

Ho Lan's launch into stardom came when she answered an ad in the newspaper for a background guitarist at a television station. The audition lead to a subsequent televised audition on the Taiwanese talent show "Wu Ge Deng". As a result of this contest, Ho Lan became the first self-accompanied, whistling and yodeling songstress on Taiwanese television. In addition to weekly appearances on the Taiwanese variety show Chun Xing Hui, (Gathering of Stars), she sang with an eighteen-piece band at the Ambassador Hotel of Taipei. With the band she performed songs in French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Tagalog, Polynesian, and her native languages Mandarin and Taiwanese for the homesick foreign diplomats.

Ho Lan's signature sultry low voice charmed audiences around the world, with appearances in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japanese television. After performing at the 1974 World Exposition in Spokane, Washington, Ho Lan and her family immigrated to America where she sang throughout the Northwest, appearing on television in Vancouver and Victoria B. C.. She retired from performing in 1985 and opened a small restaurant Ho Ho Teriyaki with her husband Danny in 1988. Recently, encouraged by her two daughters, Ho Lan has begun to compose and record again, releasing three new singles with Mandala Studio in 2011. Her new songs Happy Yodeling and Spokane are filled with messages of happiness and peace for the world. To watch Ho Lan's 1970s performances, please visit Mandala Studio's video channel Baaiimaa

-HO LAN TODAY-